A few weeks of commotion

Over the past weeks I have felt like time has somehow gotten the best of me. Admittedly I have failed terribly at blogging about my recent experiences but I will summarize:

Continued volunteering with the kiddos which included:

• Planning a final-day-extravaganza with my kids at the Bawaleshi school that will included bagged juice for everyone, a snack and a drawing book to keep drawing in after I leave.
• Discussing with Dominic (the teacher who assists me at the school) how to keep in touch after I leave so he can tell me how the kids are doing and send them my love from the states.
• Finding out that after the week I missed at the school, the kids gave Mr. Dominic the silent treatment for two days. All because they believed that he had told me not to come back and that they would never see me again. I laughed loudly for an extended period of time at this news. He responded with "This is serious! They were very angry." And I laughed some more, but this time he joined me.
• Returning to Beacon House to play with the babes/Realizing how heart broken I am going to feel the last time I go there to play. It was the first time that Grace and I have been the only volunteers there. It was fantastic to play with the kids without 4 other volunteers running around trying to entertain them.

The reason that I wasn't able to go the school or see the kids for over a week was my trip to Togo. A post on our trip could take an hour to write - and that's an hour I don't have so, here is a breakdown of my 4 days in the country of Togo:

• Terrifying border crossing after dark that involved the largest and scariest African I have met to-date. This terrifying man of intimidating size was the border official and he did NOT want to give 6 Americans week-long visas at the border... at night. After some yelling on his part and flirtatious smiling and teasing on my part (praying to God that it would translate and save us) we got our visas and I actually saw the he-man laugh. Close call.
• Adventure finding our hotel (L'hotel Gallion) in Lome... arriving - using my limited French to secure us two rooms (one for the three boys and one for the three of us girls.)
• Finding a fantastic Greek/Lebanese-like restaurant with PHENOMENAL falafal wraps that marked our entry into delicious Togolese food.
• Stumbling upon a confrontation with a very drunk and very disoriented Romanian man at the hotel and laughing at his absurd declarations of his loathing of all things French and his intentions to learn English.
• Waking up to stories of the Romanian playing naked hide-n-go-seek with two Togolese prostitutes in the hotel.
• Traveling to Kpalime to see the butterflies... 6 people in one taxi. One geo-metro style taxi. the 3 boys and me in the back - two girls in front. This only happened because some Togolese men at Kpalime station in Lome tricked us into TRYING to get into the taxi after my reminders that "Il y a trois grands hommes!" and we would never fit... I remember something about a man pushing me onto Levi's lap saying "you are very beautiful girl - think small small." Almost three hours later and multiple stops to deal with butts, feet and legs that were asleep - we arrived at Auberge Papillons.
• Met our guide who promised to show us all the natural beauty of Norther Togo - Apo. Apo delivered on his promise. The forest with its natural pigments and various secrets surprised and delighted all of us. As a bonus we got to meet a local artist who creates some of the most unique and beautiful batik work I've seen here.
• Traveled back to Lome (6 in one taxi yet again) and got lost looking for lunch.
• Eventually ate and got a taxi to Lake Togo (our final stop on our Togolese tour) with the help of a stranger. Random acts of kindness never cease to amaze me. It's miraculous we get anywhere.
• Went to Lake Togo - negotiated a price for our bungalow since it was MUCH more expensive than my guide book stated - took a canoe across the lake to Togoville - paid exorbitant rates for a non-tour. Traveled back across the lake at night (kind of creepy... kind of awesome) and went to hide from the mosquitoes that destroyed us on the canoe ride.
• Had a nearly flawless trip back to Ghana after a taxi ride back to Lome with 7 (count em' - 7) people in one taxi.
• Took moto-taxis to the border. So much fun. So dangerous.
• Togo - accomplished.

After Togo I had two exams and I have two more on Dec. 5 and Dec. 10. Tomorrow I leave for round 2 at Green Turtle. Then, before you know it... I'm getting on a plane back to the States.

Adios Legon.